Scribal Terror

Ancient fingerprints

"In ancient Babylon, fingerprints were used on clay tablets for business transactions. In ancient China, thumb prints were found on clay seals [image]. In 14th century Persia, various official government papers had fingerprints (impressions), and one government official, a doctor, observed that no two fingerprints were exactly alike."
-- The History of Fingerprinting

Mycenaean helmet

Here's how Homer describes Odysseus'  helmet -- a piece of stolen property BTW:

On his head he put
a helmet made of leather, without crest or plume,
what people call a skull-cap.  It protected heads
of brave young men.  Meriones gave Odysseus    
bow, quiver, and a sword.  On his head Odysseus set
a hide cap, on the inside skillfully reinforced    
with leather thongs.  Outside, wild boars' white teeth
were placed here and there, strategically and well.
In between these layers was a piece of felt.
This cap had once been stolen by Autolycus,
from Amyntor, Ormenus' son.  He'd broken in
his well-built home in Eleon.  Some time later,
Autolycus gave it to Amphidamas of Cythera, 
to take to his home in Scandeia.  Amphidamas
then gave the cap to Molus, as a present
for his hospitality.  Molus later gave it   
to his son Meriones.  And now it sat there, 
covering Odysseus' head.

(From Michael Lahanas's excellent site)

Dendra panoply

The Dendra panoply is a full set of not-particularly-stylish Mycenaean armor from the late 15th century BC. Wikipedia provides details:

The panoply’s cuirass consists of two pieces, for the chest and back. These are joined on the left side by a hinge. There is a bronze loop on the right side of the front-plate and a similar loop on each shoulder. Large shoulder-guards fit over the cuirass. Two triangular plates are attached to the shoulder-guards and gave protection to the wearer’s armpits when his arms were in the raised position. There is also a deep neck-guard. The Linear B ideogram depicting armour of this type makes the neck-guard clearly discernible, and protection by a high bronze collar was a typical feature of Near Eastern body armour. Three pairs of curved plates hang from the waist to protect the groin and the thighs. All these pieces are made of beaten bronze sheet and are backed with leather and loosely fastened by ox-hide thongs to allow some degree of movement. The complete panoply thus forms a cumbersome tubular suit of armour, which fully protects the neck and torso, and extends down to the knees. It appears that lower arm-guards and a set of greaves further protected the warrior, all made of bronze, as fragments of these were also found in the grave at Dendra. Slivers of boars’ tusks were also discovered, which once made up a boars’-tusk helmet.

It might have protected you from death, but it would have made you look really dumpy, especially around the thighs. Fortunately, this style was superseded by one with a cute little kilt that was designed roughly in time for the Trojan War so it would look good on Brad Pitt for the movie version.

What happened to Polybius

Discovery News reports:

Volcanologist Claudio Scarpati, and colleagues Giuseppe Luongo and Annamaria Perrotta of the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, analyzed layers of volcanic deposits in a Pompeian house [the house of Polybius] and examined 13 skeletons found there on a carpet of pumice to reconstruct the events that occurred when the eruption was in progress. . . .

By examining the density of volcanic deposits in relation to an accumulation rate of six inches per hour, the researchers concluded that it took up to six hours for the roofs of Polybius' house to collapse.

At around 7:00 p.m., by which time the front part the house had collapsed, the inhabitants took shelter in the rear rooms, whose steeper roofs had not been damaged by the falling material. . .

Between 7:00 and 8:00 a.m., a final phase, punctuated by more pumice rain, buried Pompeii [and] the solid roofs of Polybius' house collapsed.

Much more detailed information and photos at the link.

Before there was corn, there was camas/quamash

Discovery News reports:

Based on charred remains of plant material found at hot rock oven sites [across North America], cooked versions of [a] root vegetable [called the camas bulb] -- somewhat like a cross between an onion and a potato -- is thought to have been the tortilla of the Stone Age.

The bulbs required up to two days to bake, due to a complex carbohydrate called inulin that is otherwise indigestible.

Alston Thoms, who conducted [two] studies [on the rock ovens], told Discovery News that "camas consumption preceded corn consumption everywhere in the U.S. by thousands of years."

Wikipedia elaborates:

The Quamash was a food source for quite a number of native peoples in the western United States and Canada. After being harvested in the autumn, once the flowers have withered, the bulbs were pit-roasted or boiled. A pit cooked camas bulb looks and tastes something like baked sweet potato, but sweeter, and with more crystalline fibers due to the presence of inulin in the bulbs. When dried, the bulbs could be pounded into flour. Native American tribes who ate camas include the Nez Perce, Cree, Coast Salish, Lummi, and Blackfoot tribes, among many others. Camas bulbs contributed to the survival of members of the expedition of Lewis and Clark (1804-1806).

Though the once-immense spreads of camas lands have diminished because of modern developments and agriculture, numerous Camas prairies and marshes may still be seen today.

Warning: While Camassia species are edible and nutritious, the white-flowered Deathcamas species (which are not the genus Camassia, but part of the genus Zigadenus) that grow in the same areas are toxic, and the bulbs are quite similar. It is easiest to tell the plants apart when they are in flower.

Two-thousand-year-old earring

Found in Jerusalem under a parking lot. Via Discovery News

4 UR lion hunt

This Bronze Age dagger is from the Mycenaean civilization, c. 1500 BC.

Ancient rock art and cave paintings

Advance in dating cave art

Times Online reports:

Scientists have discovered that prehistoric cave paintings took up to 20,000 years to complete.

Rather than being created in one session, as archaeologists previously thought, many of the works discovered across Europe were produced over hundreds of generations who added to, refreshed and painted over the original pieces of art. . . .

Dr [Alistair] Pike and his team were able to date the paintings using a technique known as uranium series dating, which was originally developed by geologists to date rock formations such as stalactites and stalagmites in caves.

As water seeps through a cave, it carries extremely low levels of dissolved radioactive uranium along with the mineral calcium carbonate. Over time small amounts of calcium carbonate are deposited to form hard layer over the paintings and this layer also traps the uranium. Due to its radioactive properties, the uranium slowly decays to become another element known as thorium.

By comparing the ratio of uranium to thorium in the thin layers on top of the cave art, the researchers were able to calculate the age of the paintings.

Christ on a coffee mug

This is a bit more interesting that the ordinary Jesus on a slice of toast or the Blessed Virgin on a window screen, as Discovery News reports:

A team of scientists led by renowned French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio recently announced that they have found a bowl, dating to between the late 2nd century B.C. and the early 1st century A.D., that is engraved with what they believe could be the world's first known reference to Christ.

If the word "Christ" refers to the Biblical Jesus Christ, as is speculated, then the discovery may provide evidence that Christianity and paganism at times intertwined in the ancient world.

The full engraving on the bowl reads, "DIA CHRSTOU O GOISTAIS," which has been interpreted by the excavation team to mean either, "by Christ the magician" or, "the magician by Christ."

This doesn't mean it belonged to Him, by the way. It's not like He put His name on it so Peter wouldn't keep borrowing it to mix up his shaving soap. (In any event, it was found in the underwater ruins of ancient Alexandria.) It is interesting if it's an early non-Biblical reference from so far away. The dating seems to be an issue, though, as the engraving was "made on the thin-walled ceramic bowl after it was fired, since slip was removed during the process." The article doesn't explain whether the engraving itself can be dated independently of the artifact.